CRI听力:Jewish CPC Doctor in War-time China: Jakob Rosenfeld

Jewish-Austrian Jacob Rosenfeld was born in 1903. After graduated from the Medical School of Vienna University with a doctorate in general medicine in 1927, he joined the Austrian Social Democratic Party.

"Once the air-raid alert begins, we rush to the grave-mound and rely on it. I read the paragraph from Hamlet loudly to Dr. Shen, the gunshots were beside our ears, and the Vienna State Opera float in front my eyes."

It's a paragraph from Rosenfeld's dairy in 1941, when he had just came to the anti-Japanese aggression base area in east China's Jiangsu province. 3 years before that, Vienna State Opera was one of his favourite haunts. But everything changed since Nazi Germany swallowed Austria in March 1938, when Rosenfeld was arrested for being a suspected Communist and Jew, and was later put in a concentration camp in Germany.

He was released in 1939, then he opened a clinic in Shanghai, there he got acquainted with Shen Qizhen, an official in charge of health affairs in the CPC. It was during the same time he had a deeper understanding of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese revolution, and became increasingly interested in it.

Kaminsky is the vice chairman of Austrian-Chinese Friendship Association.

"Actually he could live very well, even a luxurious life in China. But he was ready to give up everything."

As the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression intensified, the Kuomintang brazenly fabricated the Southern Anhui Incident in 1941 to attack the Chinese New Fourth Army, which made Rosenfeld very angry. And he decided to work with the CPC.

"His friends, Like Dr. Shen, they told him, you can't bear all those hardships, it's very very difficult to live with the Xin Sijun together, and he says I don't care, I had the experiences of the concentration camp, I can endure any kind of hardships. These are the reasons why he joined the New Fourth Army, his sympathy, his compassion for the Chinese people."

Rosenfeld worked as a field doctor during the war of Resistance against the Japanese Aggression and the Chinese Civil war. Introduced by Chen Yi, he joined the Communist Party of China in 1942. Sometimes he had to do dozens of surgeries in one day. His working conditions were rather poor at the time, but he didn't complain about such matters.

Kaminsky says Rosenfeld always tried his best to conquer all the difficulties.

"Of course there was the language barrier, but he had learned enough Chinese to ask the patients where they ache. Usually he had one sentence "Kuai Yao Hao Le" , he learned it so he can console the patients."

Rosenfeld also trained some local medical staff. He opened a health school, in which he also compiled textbooks, delivered medical lectures, and made instructional aids.

New life completely changed the Austrian doctor. He didn't wear suits or leather shoes any more. Bread and milk were also rare luxuries for him.

Wang Minwei is the son of Wang Yutian, the then-Health Minister in Shandong. He has witnessed the life of Rosenfeld.

"He also slept on the heatable brick bed in the countryside, and daily food for him was usually a traditional Shandong pancake, which was hard to bite and eat because of the shortages of food then, the wheat bran was mixed in pancakes. But he didn't show any antipathy towards it, instead he told others that it's delicious. "

After the victory of the War of Resistance against the Japanese Aggression, Rosenfeld was sent to Northeast China, as a Health Minister in the Northeast Field Army.

Soon after New China was founded in 1949, Rosenfeld returned to his motherland, Australia. He died two years later after suffering heart failure.

One-fifth of his lifetime was spent in China. China has erected a statue in his honor, while a hospital in Junan County of Shandong province was named after him.

A bronze memorial at the entrance of Unfallkrankenhaus Hospital in Graz, Austria depicts Rosenfeld. It says: "in memory of the great doctor and humanist in China, Jakob Rosenfeld".